STARRS Podcast

Free Speech Under Fire: Ann Atkinson's Stand Against Academic Censorship

• STARRS • Season 1 • Episode 13

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Whistleblower Ann Atkinson, a staunch defender of free speech, gave a talk at the STARRS Rally for Our Republic in September 2024 in Arizona. She was introduced by rally emcee Ray Semko, the D*I*C*E Man.

Advocating for free speech in academia can be a path fraught with peril. Ann Atkinson, former executive director of the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development at Arizona State University, courageously stood her ground amidst a storm of opposition of her of promoting traditional American values by hosting an event with speakers like Dennis Prager and Robert Kiyosaki. Her story provides a gripping look into the ramifications of censorship in higher education and reveals the broader implications on students' freedom to explore diverse perspectives.
 
 Listeners will gain insight into the personal and professional fallout Ann faced, including her termination and the subsequent legislative actions in Arizona. Through Ann's powerful narrative, the theme of integrity in the workplace is discussed as well as the crucial role of authenticity in fostering an environment conducive to free speech. Ann’s talk is a testament to her unwavering commitment to truth and transparency, showcasing the vital necessity of safeguarding open dialogue on university campuses. Prepare to be inspired by Ann's resilience and the lessons her story imparts on the importance of standing up for one's beliefs against all odds.

Listeners will gain a sobering perspective on the pervasive influence of DEI in higher education. Ann has taken these issues to massive platforms—from the Wall Street Journal to Fox Business to the Arizona State Legislature. She illuminates how the issues stemming from the DEI cult extend beyond Ivy League campuses, revealing a crisis where institutions promote one ideology while practicing another. 

Her talk unveiled covert tactics used by the academic bureaucracy to intimidate and silence dissenting voices and suppress certain opinions. It's a rallying call to action, urging attendees to awaken to these realities, defend intellectual diversity, and confront the higher ed ideological cartel. 

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For more information about STARRS, go to our website: https://starrs.us which monitors and exposes the CRT/DEI/Woke agenda in the Dept. of Defense and advocates a return to Merit, Equality and Integrity in the military.

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Ray Semko, Emcee:

Okay. So now our next speaker. She's going to be good. You were terrific, everybody's going to be terrific. Okay, I've never been part of such a star-studded cast. Ann Atkinson, don't jump up. When I met her last night, I'm like are you kidding me? This lady is unbelievable. And then Kim and I'm going I feel like leftover. Yeah, not, like what am I even doing here? Then I remembered I'm holding the microphone, even doing here. Then I remembered I'm holding a microphone. Ann Atkinson paid for free speech at Arizona State. She paid a heavy price. She's going to tell you that. But the thing I thought that was amazing. She is an entrepreneur, educator, former public company executive, healthcare, real estate investor, wife, mother, triathlete oh God, I can't do that and free speech advocate. Now that I am All of that, it is amazing that you you you're a mother and you do all these things. She's going to tell you that she did something that most people would not do. They would have just let it go. She paid a price for it. Ann Atkinson, thank you You're welcome.

Ann Atkinson:

All right, good morning. How is everybody today? Good, this is a very intelligent, looking, factually intelligent audience and I'm sure those that are streaming online, that's also you. So I'm going to start with the question and first I need to ask you to please go back to yourself when you were in college or your highest form of education. Remember yourself in that classroom and think if your professor expressed a view that you disagreed with, would you have been comfortable just expressing that you had a different opinion? Show of hands, how many would have been comfortable expressing? Look, I think differently about a controversial political topic or anything. So FIRE, which is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is a prestigious national free speech organization, put out a national survey this week, two days ago, and they surveyed nationally 58,000 college students in public private universities. Of 58,000 college students, 53% were uncomfortable with that answer. They would be uncomfortable expressing a disagreement with a professor in their classroom. 53% were silencing this generation. Now. 61% of those students would be uncomfortable publicly disagreeing with their professors. So what I'm here to show you today I'll walk you through a personal experience at the largest university in the nation, right here, arizona State University, and will allow you to see just how the ideological cartel is censoring our students, causing them to also self-censor, and is rotting the very intent of higher education, which is the pursuit of truth and the discovery of knowledge. I'm first going to lay a little groundwork for you.

Ann Atkinson:

My background, as Ray said, is a public real estate health care real estate executive. I've acquired over $5 billion of medical office buildings on behalf of investment companies. I've had a 20-year career in this. Higher education was not in my cards, but I got recruited to run this center as the executive director of what was the TW Lewis Center for Personal Development at Arizona State University. Asu has 144,000 students enrolled. It's a massive institution here in Arizona and this center served its entire Honors College of 7,000 students. So it was my honor to take a break from Healthcare Real Estate Investments to come and serve these next generations of students.

Ann Atkinson:

So what was the Lewis Center? This was a donor-funded center that was new, only a couple of years old when I joined, with the specific intent to teach the traditional American values of personal finance, personal responsibility, entrepreneurship, free enterprise, career success. These are points that are so rare in our education institutions and it was a bright light not just in the Honors College but also within the university at large. So we put on events and as the executive director it was my job to bring in speakers and put on speaker programs and workshops that aligned with that intent. And boy we did. In two years we had over 150 speaker programs with all sorts of different leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, some former politicians and people to basically bring the real world into these classrooms.

Ann Atkinson:

The Lewis Center was successful, but from day one the faculty were threatened by simply the happy capitalists, as they mockingly called us. I think a happy capitalist is a great compliment. So the Lewis Center was this program, it was this gem, it was a community for students and it was something different than what existed. But the faculty didn't like it. For a while we had a dean who was the dean for 20 years of Barrett, the Honors College, who supported diversity of intellect and supported our right to exist to put on programs which are different than what you would typically see in the Honors College. But then we got a new dean. So let me finish this groundwork and then I'm going to tell you the conflict that happened that you might have read about in the Wall Street Journal or in various publications here in Arizona.

Ann Atkinson:

As executive director, I invited speakers to come and made the decision, along with our donor, Tom Lewis, to invite Dennis Prager, robert Kiyosaki and Charlie Kirk to come and speak at ASU. The faculty threw a fit. They threatened us, they took action and showed us that speech is not really free at Arizona State. It's not really free in higher education. So this event was to take place at Gammage Auditorium, which is the most prestigious stage and the largest university in the country, in February of 2023. And this speaker program was called Health, wealth and Happiness and truly, for those of you who know me personally, I'm not a lightning rod that wants to come in and shake things up. I wanted to provide a great educational program for the students, for the community, that would be free for any students high school wouldn't matter and I brought in really great speakers that are experts in these areas of health, wealth and happiness. Great speakers that are experts in these areas of health, wealth and happiness.

Ann Atkinson:

But once the program was announced, 39 of the 47 honors faculty at Barrett, the honors college launched an all-out assault on the center, on our donors, on our speakers and on me. These are the professors who are supposed to be helping our students and our children discover truth and learn and be ready for the real world. But instead they decided to attack and they used their university resources, emailing across the university to other schools and departments and chairs saying join us as we mobilize and protest because Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk are white nationalist extremists, they're a threat to democracy and they're purveyors of hate. I mean, they were going to talk about happiness, so then the faculty they take to Twitter and they talk about how they're so offended. This isn't what their school represents.

Ann Atkinson:

I have all this documented, and one that stood out to me was a professor saying that our college sold its soul to the highest bidder by having a donor-funded center that's optional for students to attend, funded by Mr Tom Lewis, who is an incredible philanthropist in Arizona. And they say our college sold its soul Like we're the darkness. I mean, I think that's gaslighting is maybe a fairly accurate way to describe that tweet. So the professors are talking and then they write this petition that, with 39 of the 47 professors sign this petition outlining all the reasons why these speakers are purveyors of hate and threats to our democracy, and they cite media matters for all of their examples, which is basically a left-wing rag that it loses all credibility. So all of this happened and maybe that's just faculty being faculty.

Ann Atkinson:

But then the deans took down our marketing because it offended the faculty. Now this is a line that is a line to cross. For the dean of the Honors College to physically remove marketing and to order for the TV screen marketing to be taken down because their faculty were offended, which was discussed and decided in a secret meeting that I was not invited to and then for the deans dean and vice dean to take me in a conference room and tell me specifically what these speakers would or would not be allowed to talk about. They set ground rules and said Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk are not to talk about higher education or anything that could be deemed as political or used as a political platform, which it's hard to understand what they could even mean by that. So they tried to censor speech by some of the most prominent voices in the nation who were coming to talk about a very vanilla topic health, wealth and happiness. And then the deans decided and they hired an outside crisis management firm to handle our health, wealth and happiness program. And in a meeting with the deans and the crisis management firm, they told me look, what's going to stop you from inviting the KKK to campus, ann? Because these speakers basically share the same values.

Ann Atkinson:

Okay, my one funny line of the day and it's, I think, a sad funny but these speakers we had one was from Sri Lanka, one is a Japanese American and one is a religious Jew and the crisis management team compared them to the KKK. I think that gave me very sad tears to think about that. Those are the people educating our children. So at this point I thought this is ridiculous. It can't get worse. We have the faculty that is assaulting our program. The deans are censoring us, and I talked to the speakers. I had a heart-to-heart with Robert Kiyosaki, with Dennis Prager, with Charlie Kirk and their teams and with Tom Lewis and said look, I mean, this program is being cast as a white supremacy rally and that's not at all the intent. Do we want to continue? And all of us, we stood lockstep together and said yes. We stood lockstep together and said yes, we will stand up, we will speak up, we will hold this program. And we did, and it was a success, and we had 1,600 people in the audience. And the program is still available on YouTube today.

Ann Atkinson:

And if it was anything like how they tried to paint this, just because the faculty and deans didn't like our speakers, well, it would have been taken down. Or I would have one comment on the YouTube video saying look at this hate speech. How am I on time? Okay, so with all of this I have, I'm an alma. Asu is my alma mater. I went to Barrett the honors college and I thought you know, we have a very reasonable president of the university and I'm going to address what? Because what's the worst they can do? I'm not a higher education lifelong person, I'm a healthcare real estate investor. I'm going to take this on, I don't care the cost. I'm going to address the problem through all the proper channels, do it respectfully and make a change, because this is ridiculous.

Ann Atkinson:

So, after everything was said and done, the dust settled. There's so much detail that happened in this you'd just be appalled. But I took these issues up to the university and I thought the one thing that would stand out the most to university admins would be how those faculty members actually went into their classrooms Before our program. They told our students do not attend because this event is for white supremacists. The teachers instructed the students and told them what to believe, what was okay to believe. And you wonder why 53% of those nationally surveyed students were uncomfortable, disagreeing with their professors, because this is what's happening in our classrooms. So I thought of everything that happened.

Ann Atkinson:

The dean censoring speech and the professors going into their classroom would not resonate with Michael Crow. Michael Crow was a respected university president. I have a lot of respect for what he's done with the university and I thought he will not stand for this. I was wrong. I went through HR, through all the acronym levels of the university. I went all the way up to the president. The president and the board of regents reached out to them personally, provided evidence, provided student testimonials about what happened in these classrooms and nothing, nothing happened. So I asked for a meeting with President Crow. He deferred me to meet with the provost, nancy Gonzalez lovely lady and also have a lot of respect for her, but I disagree with how she handled this. When I told her all that I just told you, her response to me was well, ann, we allowed the speakers, but you then have to take the consequences. Invite the wrong people, face consequences. What were my consequences? I lost my job. I was fired over this. The events organizer at ASU Gammage, who did nothing but simply allow a university colleague to put on an event. She was fired and the entire Lewis Center that I ran, a million-dollar center, was shut down.

Ann Atkinson:

I can't tell you the speakers that we had lined up for the next year. We had a bus of 100 students ready to go to Microchip Technologies to meet the founder and CEO of this mega company. We had Joe Polish, who's here in the audience of the Genius Network, who's the connector of all connectors, lined up to come and spend his time teaching these students. By the way, do you want to know how Trump and RFK became connected? Joe Polish introduced our mutual friend, callie Means to Robert F Kennedy Jr, who's a really good friend of Joe Polish, and Callie Means is the person who connected Donald Trump and RFK. So, by the way, thank you, joe for that. And that was a Lewis Center speaker. Joe Polish, that is. He will not get the chance to go back and maybe you're going to go back and you know to the people who remain, but the center's gone.

Ann Atkinson:

So the consequences speaking out is that I was fired, lynn Blake was fired and the entire center's gone and all those students who I still keep in touch with my daughter has a bracelet business and she's six. The students like to buy her bracelets. I keep in touch with a lot of them and they have nothing. They have no community. That is even resemblant of what we had at the Lewis Center. So to wrap this up about what happened it you know I went to the University Provost and exhausted all resources internally, went through all the channels, respectfully so, and when she told me that you know you, we allowed the speaker, but you have to take the consequences. That's when I went public. So that's where I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, an op-ed at the National Review.

Ann Atkinson:

I've been on Dakin McDowell and Sean Duffy with Fox Business. I've been on Maria Bartiromo with Fox Business. I've been on the Rubin Report, dennis Prager, charlie Kirk, sharing this message and the government picked this up. And we have had multiple legislative hearings in Arizona. We have legislation that has been drafted and we are taking action. The university will not fix itself and for those of you who have woken up, you need to realize we have to stay awake, we have to take action. These institutions, the military and higher education, will go to incredible lengths to treat these instances like PR crises, not like problems that need addressing. So stand up, speak up and never, ever give up. Thank you.

Ray Semko, Emcee:

Nothing like doing your job and getting fired for it. I don't know about you, but now I'm realizing that when they tell me the rest of the story, I'm getting madder, and it's such a shame. I mean colleges they're supposed to be for expanding your horizons, Actually teaching you to do analytical thinking, not just following the bouncing ball with the loudest voice. And for what you did, yeah, I can only commend you, Ann, because most people wouldn't. Most people would have just said, okay, fine, I'm not going to do it. It's just like me, after every job that I lost because I was telling the truth. You know why I tell the truth. I'm not smart enough to remember lies. That's why I could never be a politician. So in this case here, people would go you can't tell people that, yes, I can tell people that Am I lying? And they'd say no, but you're upsetting them. Oh well, forgive me, I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but I was a difficult employee. I really was, Because I told them. You know what, If you have to give somebody a bad efficiency rating to even out the curve, give me the bad one. I can take it, because I don't need your approval to do my job. I know how to do my job. I told every supervisor I ever had if you don't show up for work, I'm in charge. Please do me a favor, Take my vacation days. We'd all appreciate it. I'm tired of placating stupid. And this is what we're fighting. That's what you were fighting. Unbelievable that that lady said you got to pay the price.

Ray Semko, Emcee:

What about you? I was always on the road and every time I come back and go well, where were you? Yesterday? I said I have receipts. I got hotel parking a whole nine yards. What did you do yesterday? I have witnesses who saw me work. Anybody see you do anything? Yeah, and the class I always attended was dealing with difficult employees. I always attended those because I wanted to know what they were going to do for me. Try and do to me, and that's what the bad guys do all the time. So, and thank you for your courage and for being a whistleblower. That's a tough thing to do. It really is. And so we got to get to the next speaker because Casey's going to slide me if we go late.